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Nancy O'Dell On The 2017 Emmy Awards: "It Just Felt Bigger"

The 69th annual Emmy Awards took place last night on CBS and delivered a night filled with the greatest stars in entertainment today. Stephen Colbert of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert assumed hosting duties and the night also featured performances and a surprise cameo from former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.

Entertainment Tonight's Nancy O'Dell was working the red carpet and watched all the events unfold live and in-person from Los Angeles' Microsoft Theater. Earlier today CBS Local's Matt Weiss spoke to O'Dell to get her thoughts on the evening.

MW- Hi Nancy, how's it going?

NO- I'm good, how are you?

MW- I'm doing well! I'm sure you're coming off a pretty long night!

NO- I did, I could have used a little more sleep but not too bad. I've had longer nights that's for sure.

MW- So the 69th annual Emmy Awards have come and gone, what did you think of the show overall?

NO- I thought it was a great year, it just felt bigger and it was really interesting. A lot of history was made last night with Julia Louis-Dreyfus winning for Best Actress In A Comedy, she tied Cloris Leachman's record for eight prime time acting Emmys and set the record for the number of wins by an actor playing one character breaking the tie with Candis Bergen and Don Knotts. You had SNL, they haven't won in over more than two decades and they won nine awards, the most of any show. Then Hulu being the first streaming service to win in the Best Drama category. It was just one of those nights where it was history.

Nicole Kidman winning her first Emmy which you think Nicole Kidman has won every award in the world, but this is her foray into television. There were actually four Oscar winners in her category, I think it was just an indication last night of how much television is changing and how great TV is right now. I think TV right now is better than it has ever been and that's why I think the Emmys were so great.

MW- It seems the landscape has definitely changed with streaming services and the all the cross overs between the big screen and the little screen. Now you were out there before the show, who won the red carpet in your opinion?

NO- I would have to say Nicole Kidman or Jessica Biel, one of the two. Both looked phenomenal. Nicole Kidman with that scarlet colored dress that she had on with the ballgown, she just made it very glamorous and the jewels coming down the center of her neck, she's so tall and statuesque she always looks phenomenal but last night I just thought she looked particularly beautiful.

Then Jessica Biel, when she walked out in that breathe taking kind of rose colored gown with the thigh high slit and it was a Ralph & Russo and the sparkles on one side and the light color of the other side. She just walked up and I was like, 'whoa!' I asked her if she just wakes up looking so great and she's like, "No! Actually I wake up with snot in my nose and boogers in my eyes," and I'm like yea right I don't believe you for one minute but you just made us all feel a lot better so thank you very much for that [laughs]. It was very endearing she was really cute about it.

MW- So Nicole Kidman and Jessica Biel were your 1A and 1B, too close to call.

NO- Yea, I'd say both of them were my A's. I also always love what Viola Davis does because she does a stunning color. She had a Zac Posen dress that she had on with this real pop of color on the red carpet and I thought she looked great too.

MW- And once the show actually got started, what was your biggest surprise of the night?

NO- Well, there weren't any that shocked me. I wasn't surprised that SNL took their awards with Alec (Baldwin) and Kate McKinnon, I knew they were the front runner. Elisabeth Moss was the front runner and she was teasing me on the red carpet she was like, 'you're making me nervous, stop calling me the front runner!' and so I've nicknamed her front runner and I'm just going to continue to call her front runner all the time.

I knew Nicole Kidman was a front runner, didn't know if Laura Dern would win also in her category because she and Shailene Woodley were both nominated so I didn't know if they would split the vote. Overall I think everyone who won was very deserving of it. The one thing that surprised me was I thought maybe This Is Us would win somewhere and they did in the after category but I thought maybe they would win somewhere else as well. Overall not huge surprises as far as the categories, I think a lot of them were pretty predictable.

MW- When you look back on last night, what was the moment that you will remember about the 2017  Emmy Awards?

NO- I would say a couple things. I would say Stephen Colbert hosting because I think this Emmys was a very political year and I think that's the reason SNL walked away with so many awards. They had a year where politics were so talked about with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and they had Alec and Kate portraying them and so I thought Stephen Colbert was the perfect host.

I think also Nicole Kidman winning symbolized a lot the changing landscape of television. I think her win symbolized a lot in the fact that there is this mix of movie stars and them coming over to television shows how great television has become because there's so many different options to watch television that everybody really has to step up their game. Everybody has to create incredible scripts and to really be great because there are so many different options. Also the fact that there are great roles for women these days I think that showed a lot too.

MW- Well thanks so much Nancy, like I said I know it was late night and a quick turnaround, I really appreciate you talking to me today and take care!

NO- Thanks so much, it was good to talk to you!

Check out your CBS Local Emmy Awards section for more Emmys coverage including the full list of nominees, winners and exclusive video content with some of televisions brightest stars.

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